"You are the sky. Everything else―it's just the weather." ― Pema Chödrön

March 10, 2009June 28, 2013

Climate change?

According to the Gregorian calendar, spring will officially commence in less than two weeks. Hard to believe with today’s weather akin to the coldest part of winter – at least the winter of years gone by.

When I looked out my window this afternoon, I could see snow flakes falling hard from the heavy clouds. This morning, I drove to work in a car covered with a thin layer of ice and snow. I cursed myself for not wearing my fur hat (the full-length wool coat and leather gloves alone weren’t cutting it). Friends saw up to 6 inches of snow at their homes.

Yesterday, I played outside in the warm sunshine.

Only God can predict the weather, I know this. Especially in the Pacific Northwest. But I have lived in the area my whole life and I cannot recall the weather ever so sporadic, nor do I recall a winter even a bit close to the brutality that we survived this year. Even as a resident of downtown Seattle and the owner of a four-wheel drive SUV, I had to be cautious. When my car wasn’t slipping down Boren Ave, the Jetta behind me was.

If Seattle had seen one blizzard or even two, I would not mention it here. But this winter was one storm after another, new snow continually piling on top of a thickening layer of black ice.

If the strange weather was limited to one region of the globe, or even just a few, I would not be so alarmed. But this is happening everywhere. From Australia to California.

If the weather was making lives easier and happier, I would be feeling optimistic. But we are seeing exactly the opposite. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, freezing temperatures, and extreme heat is wreaking havoc on our homes, our health, and our livelihoods.

This time series chart, Billion Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters 1980-2008, shows a gradual but undeniable increase in the past two decades. Mother nature is pissed off, and people are dying.

Whether or not you have been affected, if you are a responsible human being, you care. In which case I highly recommend that you educate yourself. Commit to making some changes.

Dive right in by watching the documentary film, “The 11th Hour,” on the grave state of our planet and the problems we face as its inhabitants; such as global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans’ habitats.

The film questions the survival of the earth’s life systems, including humanity. It also offers hope by proposing various changes to mass thought and action, changes that will have restorative effects on our beautiful planet earth. After all, humans were created to live in harmony with our environment, not in a constant war with mother nature. I think our world is finally learning that her forces are far more frightening than the collective power of man.

Sound depressing? If you try to avoid the issue, it will not disappear. It’s scarier to deny knowledge than to accept the responsibility. In this case, ignorance is NOT bliss. Rather, awareness is the first step to creating change.